152 Education. [Chap. XXV, 



have emerged from the state of childhood is al- 

 together unwise. That this circumstance has an 

 unfavourable influence on the dignity and gene- 

 ral success of a course of public instruction can 

 scai-cely be doubted. That it should cooperate 

 with other causes to render the number of superfi- 

 dal scholars greater than they would otherwise 

 be, seems to be an unavoidable consequence ; and 

 that it tends to diminish the subordination and the 

 regularity of modern academic systems, expe- 

 rience abundantly demonstrates. 



The last century also produced considerable 

 improvements in the means of instruction. These 

 are of various kinds, and deserve our particular 

 attention, in estimating the progress of literature 

 during the period under consideration. 



The first circumstance deserving of notice under 

 this head is the great muUiplication of Seminaries 

 of learning, in the course of the last age. This is 

 a very interesting feature in the period which we 

 are endeavouring to delineate. Institutions for 

 the purpose of instruction, from universities down 

 to the smallest schools, were never half, perhaps 

 not a tenth part, so numerous as at the close of 

 the eighteenth century. In every portion of the 

 civilised world they have increased to an astonish- 

 ing amount; they have brought the means of 

 education to almost every door ; and, with oppor- 

 tunities, have presented excitements to the acqui- 

 sition of knowledge before unknown. 



Charity Schools, if not first established, were 

 gi-eatly multiplied during this century ; and per- 

 hjips deserve to be considered as one of the most 

 useful plans of public beneficence to which the 



